Bessie Head's life in Botswana was a far cry from the humiliating and belittling treatment she experienced in South Africa. Botswana was a very peaceful country with people who embraced outsiders. They treated the political refugees as one of their own as they understood their plight. Thus Head together with her son went to live among the Bamangwato, and she got her teaching job. For the duration of her stay among the Batswana, a lot of respect and responsibility was accorded to Head which is a contrast to the way things were in South Africa. This was shown by her participation in the village developmental projects. This includes her contribution to development of Swaneng Hill School and the Brigade centre. Nowhere in South Africa were the Blacks' importance in society development recognised because they were deemed as useless.
The peaceful environment in Botswana gave Head a peace of mind which gave her room to also develop her writing talent which she was later to seriously engage in during her stay in Botswana, as most of her six books were written while she was in Botswana in Serowe. Her fist publication was When Rain Clouds Gather in 1968. As most of Bessie's writings advocate for equality and simplicity by asserting that people have to be ordinary and criticising power which is a tool for oppression, her writings would not have augured well with the apartheid regime. She would not have been accorded a chance to express what she felt about racism as the writings would have easily sent her to prison. So Head found abundant freedom of expression here in Botswana, and this is one thing she had wished to use to her benefit. The freedom in Botswana at least gave her a platform to write her feelings, lashing out against racism, and she did that through what she knew most, which is writing.
Nevertheless, Head was discontented about oppression of the tribes which were deemed to be inferior. This was something that opened Head's healing wounds as she thought she was recovering from profound oppression in South Africa. She was unhappy about the marginalisation of some tribes like the Batswapong and the Basarwa by Bangwato which prompted her publication of her book Maru in which she clearly criticizes the question of power. At this point she even considered moving to Norway to show displeasure but then decided to stay because of the good way the Batswana generally treated her despite this discontent.
Also Head was aware of the oppression of women in Botswana. In her short essay "Despite broken bondage, Botswana women are still unloved," she interrogates the power that men have over women. Even though women play a significant role especially in household chores, they are not accorded the respect they deserve because of their contribution to development.
The unlimited freedom she had in her writing almost landed her in hot water. This was when she made a scathing attack against the then president, Sir Seretse Khama. She alleged that the president was indulging in an incestuous relationship with his daughter. She was disillusioned at that time; she had a mental breakdown because of the problems she experienced in her life. This was understandable to the president and the Batswana at that time. She was not charged and then taken to the mental hospital.
On a concluding note one can say Bessie Head managed to portray herself as a true advocate for the voiceless, the oppressed, and her advocacy for human equality has put herself as well as our own country on the world map. Her rise to fame as a writer came because of her wise move to come to a democratic country where she was able to denounce racism and all sorts of maltreatment of fellow human beings in the strongest possible terms. She has shown an example to the world that emancipation cannot only be gained through bloodshed but can be acquired in a more amicable manner which is writing.
Copyright © 2003 the authors.
Last updated 8 June 2003